Saturday was rainy and slightly cold – a great day for hiking in the lowlands. I did a double loop to Wilderness and Long View Peaks via the Wilderness Cliffs Trail, Long View Peak Trail, Deceiver Trail, Shy Bear Trail and Wilderness Creek Trail. Trail conditions varied from fairly dry to wet and “sticky mud” on parts of the Shy Bear and Deceiver Trails. The Issaquah Alps trail club had a hike over this same area but I did not see them at any point on the loop, not surprising since I started about 2 hours later than this group. The cliffs trail was in good shape with limited mud and that mostly near the summit of Wilderness Peak where the trail levels somewhat and goes near a bog. The trail to Long View Peak was in good shape and there was no mud on the first section of Deceiver to Doughty Falls, from the falls to Shy Bear there is some mud and muck but much more on Shy Bear which goes through several bog areas before connecting to the Wilderness Creek Trail. Some of the Shy Bear Mud holes were of the boot sucking type and need to be stepped around or over. Wilderness Creek has some mud but nothing unusual (did not have any boot sucking mud holes) for the day or time of year. There was some sun as I passed over a board walk crossing of Wilderness Creek but in general it rained most of this hike. The good part of the hike being few people were out on Deceiver or Shy Bear making it a quite time.

I had been driving to Oregon the last few weekends and needed a quick fix of hiking after a long weekend or yard work. The Wilderness Creek Trail is in excellent shape and the walk was in realively warm condtions - not spring like but close. Trillium was blooming on the trail, after reaching the connection with the Wilderness Cliff Trail, I walked to the Squak Mt. Connector and decended to SR 900 and then back to the car. The Connector Trail is quite, amazingly so since you are just above the highway the whole time. Once on the connector trail I did not see anyone so this was a great hour trip for the soul.

A great and warm Sunday called for a walk, if even a brief one. I headed up to the Wilderness Creek trail for a trip to Wilderness peak and down. The Wilderness Creek trail is in excellent shape and was a joy to hike to Wilderness Peak. No views of course and another party was eating lunch so down the Wildeness Cliff trail. There are some views from this trail as you are about 1/3 the way up. Several parties were occupying the view spots so just a brief look and then down to the Squak Connector Trail which I had not been on. The Squak Connector Trail was also in good shape and an easy walk to SR 900. SR 900 was busy on Sunday and no fun walking the 0.2 mile or so back the my car. I did note an abandoned car on the Squak Connector Trail. It looked like a 1970's Ford. This section of trail is an old road and my guess is the Ford predates the area becoming a King County Park.

The trails on Cougar Mt. continue to be amazingly dry and mud free. The trails near the former “swamp” or lake are normally muddy once the rainy season starts, but on Sunday they remained very dry and easy to walk. There is some mud on the Shangri La trail but nothing compared to the normal amount during winter. The fall colors are in full swing and trees in the park are dropping their leaves. There were lots of folks on all of the trails so not much solitude. The trip up the Klondike Swamp trail was a real treat with sunlight beaming on an arch of Burch trees with gold and green leaves. This trip takes about 2 hours and is 5 to 6 miles in length. The top of Wilderness Peak has a summit register and some trails that may lead down to the Wilderness Cliffs trail. I went down one of these for a short time and it did not look like a game trail. This may be worth exploration the next time I am on this trail.

December 28, 2003 This was a low energy hike to Wilderness Peak in Cougar Mt. Park. The weather was cool with slush in the parking lot at AA Peak. We (Alpine Art, Courageous KT, and the Fair James) took the AA Ridge Trail down to Fred's Railroad and then to Shy Bear Pass and Wilderness Peak, returning via the same route. The day was gray and drizzly with the light rain turning to snow as we approached Wilderness Peak. KT had cold hands so rather than continuing to Coal Creek Falls from Wilderness Peak we returned to the car. The light snow on all of the trees made the trip very worth while. I thought it would be a beauty we would be denied it Seattle, but low the snow came later in the week. Cougar Mt. is a great place to hike in cold weather as the mud becomes more solid and the snow adds to the enchantment of the place.